Alchemic Cutie Preview: Low-Fi Jelly Raising

Alchemic Cutie is a relaxing simulation game from a two-man development team. You capture and raise small jelly creatures, each with unique attributes. These jellies are used in competitions to progress in the game. This is wrapped up in a quirky but lovable town. It’s the sort of gaming town where everyone is completely obsessed with one particular aspect of life. On Wimba Island, it’s jelly raising. They live for it.

The pixel art style is reminiscent of Zelda and Stardew Valley, it’s a style that really fits a chilled out game. Between the soundtrack and this style of play, playing Alchemic Cutie evokes the same feeling as listening to Lo-Fi beats. There’s more to the game than just jellies though, there’s a farming element and an island to explore. Farming simulators are a crowded marketplace for indies at the moment. However, here it’s largely a means for gathering resources. With alchemy, resources are used to create different items for your jellies. That fulfils the Alchemic side, as for the Cutie bit? Well, most of the game fits that description.

A Cute Island

Wimba Island is a pretty chilled out placed. The lives of the weird inhabitants revolve around jellies. The characters that are spread around the demo area have a lot of charm to them. If this is an indication of how interaction will feel, then it’s going to be another pixelated village to fall in love with. Essentially, it’s well written cutesy dialogue. The sort you’d expect from a game with cutie in the title.

The developers plan to build out the island, making the stories of the inhabitants a big part of the game. Aiming for an experience more akin to Animal Crossing than a world ending plot. What’s currently shown is small but promising. While relaxing, Alchemic Cutie does need a little more going on than the present build. If these cute characters are given compelling lives, it’ll be hard to resist getting to know them.

An All-Devouring Love of Dancing

The heart of Alchemic Cutie is the jellies. By playing a flute, you get a wild jelly so caught up in your rocking melody that they’re completely oblivious to outside world. While they’re in a blind trance of pure flute-induced euphoria, you’re able to effortlessly capture them. There are thousands of different designs for these jellies, so you’ll be looking for a while if you want all of them. They’re also each blessed with the most bizarre descriptions. The stats of each jelly are the main influencer in their performance during contests.

You can increase your chances of succeeding in these contests by training items to your jellies to effect their stats. This isn’t done by any sort of combat. You farm and gather. After the short but magical process of alchemy, your materials are now consumable items! These will effect your jelly’s stats, feed them, make them happy or sad, and increase their bond with you. Alchemic Cutie already has a deep meta-game to these stats and buffs, so there’s a lot to sink your teeth into. On the other hand, if you’d rather spent your hours kicking back and becoming best friends with whichever jelly has the best personality then you can. Competitively raising your jelly like it’s a show dog is not mandatory.

It’s still early days for the game. If you’re curious, a small alpha build of the game is available. There’s even a system set up already to transfer your progress from the early build to the final game. Alchemic Cutie is defiantly worth keeping an eye on if you’re a fan of chilled out, relaxing gaming.

Jordan Ashley

Jordan Ashley lives in the middle of the UK with two dogs who routinely beat him on Mario Kart. He's a big fan of playing Wind Waker over and over again while ignoring all other tasks. He also likes Craft Beer and screaming at Splatoon.

Videos

Popular Discussions

The recent quality and appeal of CG-heavy films like the upcoming Cats, and Disney’s remakes of The Lion King and Aladdin have been called into question. The film adaptation of Sonic the Hedgehog has experienced tumultuous development, with a universally reviled design undergoing revision. A desire for a return to 2D animated cinema has been […]

In the veritable shadow of larger-than-life statues of new Borderlands 3 characters at E3 2019, mission and level designer Kate Pitstick got to see her work showcased to thousands. During the bustling exhibition at the Los Angeles Convention Center, Pitstick took the time to talk about her career and work on the latest entry in […]

Though action RPG Crystar is already available in its native Japan, it will be heading to North America and Europe later this month. Along with promising action-packed gameplay, Crystar carries its own philosophy on emotions. Published by Spike Chunsoft and FuRyu, and developed by Gemdrops, Crystar follows Rei Hatada’s efforts to revive her dead sister, […]

Embodying the spirit of encompassing all gaming, the IndieCade showcase at E3 2019 featured tabletop games too. This included Thorny Games’ Dialect: A Game About Language and How It Dies. But before players can reach the destruction of a language, they have to create it first. Communally Created Words “For every turn of the game, […]

As more people working in video games try to form their own union, they’ve recently gotten another burst of online support. Apparently starting on April 2, voice actors united under the #Voices4Devs hashtag on Twitter to call attention to the developers they work with on games. A wide variety of voice actors from AAA titles […]